Originally Posted by
RameshK
This behavior is far from suicidal. By and large it has to be a money making venture for the bank, else they will not keep it going as long as they have.
These mileage bonuses are chicken feed to them. And the number of people out to collect miles is very small compared to the total CCs and new accounts coming their way. It is the cost of doing business. Some people will use the loopholes and it has to be accepted for the larger goals they have set for themselves.
I agree. Mileage bonuses might be chicked feed to them, but what I am having a hard time understanding is why let people churn? What more are they getting out of letting people churn than not letting them churn? What has Citi figured out that all other big CC companies have decided otherwise? Is there a great marketing bulls-eye that Citi has hit that others have missed? The only thing that someone mentioned is the publicity and thus getting new people to sign up, which seems reasonable. But when I think about it, it seems like a long shot. My circle of friends are those that swear off credit cards and those that are hard core (as to getting the last blood out of a deal). My recommendation to my friends will only serve one purpose. Get my hard core mileage junkies to do the same thing that I do, while my other friends are not going to act on it. So in a way, it is a net loss to Citi. It is very very hard to get new people to play this mileage game, the initial threshold is very high, IMO.